Exploding the Myths

It is time to put to rest some of the myths
surrounding gender equity in sports.

MYTH: Football and basketball create
revenue and are important because they can fund the entire
athletic department, generate visibility, and lead to TV
money. Therefore, they should have large budgets.

FACT: While it is true that many of
the largest schools (Division I-A) have football and basketball
teams that bring in profits, the vast majority of football
and basketball teams actually run a deficit - sometimes
a large one.

In 1989, forty-five percent of football teams
at Division I-A schools ran an average deficit of $638,000.
What's worse, the percentage of football teams running deficits
has been increasing over the years. In 1981, only 24% of
Division I-A football teams reported deficits.

Ninety-four percent of Division I-AA football
teams ran an average deficit of $535,000 per team. Ninety-seven
percent of Division 11 football teams ran an average deficit
of $247,000. Out of all Division 1, 11, and III schools
that offer football and reported their earnings, only 19%
made a profit.

Of basketball teams at Division 1, 11, and
III schools that reported their earnings, only 24% made
a profit. Seventy-four percent of Division I-AA basketball
teams ran an average deficit of $199,000.63

MYTH: Successful football and basketball
teams help spur alumni giving to the university. Therefore,
football and basketball teams must be well-funded and competitive.

FACT: The schools that receive the
most from alumni giving are not the ones with the big name
football or basketball teams. Harvard, Cornell, and Yale
Universities top the list with the most money given by alumni.
In fact, some of the colleges with the most alumni giving
per student are women's colleges: Wellesley, Randolph Macon,
Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, and Smith.

In any case, whether or not sports teams
bring in money to a school is irrelevant in the eyes of
the law. According to Title IX, gender discrimination at
federally-funded educational institutions is illegal even
if the school's football team is making a profit or bringing
in lots of alumni dollars.

MYTH: Football requires a large number
of players in order to be able to field two teams for practice,
and because of the high rate of injury football players
sustain.

FACT: Do football teams really need
105 players, with 85 on full-ride scholarships? After all,
a football team is made up of only 11 players. Even with
four full teams (two to play against each other in practice,
and two extra teams), that is only 44 players.

The huge number of football scholarships
is one reason schools have trouble funding women's teams.
Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports
Foundation, points out: "If the NCAA were to cut the number
of football scholarships from 85 to 65 or 60, it would give
every Division I school the ability to comply [with Title
IX tomorrow."

Often, schools forced to implement gender
equity will cut minor men's sports rather than cut football
funding. The men athletes whose sports are cut tend to blame
women and gender equity, instead of the bloated football
budget.

MYTH: Compliance with Title IX means
the doom of men's athletics.

FACT: Non-compliance with Title IX
continues to mean the doom of women's athletics. Title IX
does not call for discrimination against men's sport; it
calls for gender equity. The aim is not to diminish the
impact or importance of men's sports, but instead to provide
equity for women's sports. Contrary to popular belief, as
more women have entered athletics, they have not displaced
men. In fact, athletic opportunities for both women and
men in high school and college have increased over time.

MYTH: Women are naturally inferior
to men in terms of strength and speed. Therefore, women
just can't be as good at sports as men.

FACT: All men are not stronger or
faster than all women. There is great overlap in the strength
and speed of men and women.

Because women on average have greater flexibility,
a greater percentage of body fat (useful for ultra-distance
races), and smaller size, we tend to be as good as or better
than men in some sports: marathon swimming, very long-distance
running, gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and horse racing,
to name a few. And, in recreational sports like tennis,
golf, "Ultimate" Frisbee, softball, volleyball, and countless
others, women and men regularly play against and with each
other at similar skill levels.

Nevertheless, many men take great comfort
in the fact that most women are not big, strong, or fast
enough to play football. Of course, most men are not either.
"Because women 'could never play football,' [men imply],
men are physically, naturally, biologically superior," says
Mariah Burton Nelson, author of The Stronger Women Get,
the More Men Love Football. "When women demonstrate excellence
in sports like running, tennis, and golf, men take great
pains to describe that excellence as less important, less
worthy, less of an achievement than male excellence.

"These same people would never think of comparing
Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali. One weighed sixty pounds
more than the other. Clearly, they deserve to box in different
classes. Yet the top female tennis player is often compared
to the top male player.... who usually outweighs her by
sixty pounds.

MYTH: High schools are exempt from
gender-equity and Title IX because they are funded by local
money, not federal funds.

FACT: While primary and secondary
education is controlled and funded largely by local and
state governments, schools also receive billions of dollars
of federal money through the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act and other programs. This federal money funds low income
schools, magnet schools, migrant education, drug-free schools,
schools in districts with a large military base, and other
special programs. If your school district is one of the
few that receives no federal funds, you may still be able
to enforce gender equity through a state Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA) or state "Title IX" law.

Virtually all colleges and universities receive
federal funds in the form of financial aid and research
grants.

MYTH: Colleges and universities in
violation of Title IX, but who are above national averages
for women's participation and funding, should be let off
the hook.

FACT: Just because one college or
university misses the mark by less than another does not
mean they have reached gender equity. Equity does not mean
almost equal or part-way. Women are half the population,
pay half the tuition and half the taxes, and we deserve
equal treatment under Title IX.

MYTH: Colleges can't help it if more
than half the athletes are male. Women are just not as interested
in athletics as men are.

FACT: It is no accident that colleges
have more men athletes than women athletes. More money is
spent around the country recruiting men athletes. The institutional
average for athletic re- cruitment for Division I schools
is $139,000 for men's sports, and only $28,840 for women's
sports. If recruitment money were spent equally for women
and men, schools would have a much better chance of enrolling
an equal number of women and men athletes.

MYTH: Gender equity issues must be
put on hold because athletic budgets are too tight at present.

FACT: Women are asking only for 50%
of what is available - no more, no less. No matter how small
a budget, it can still be divided equally in two.

MYTH: Women do not have as much relevant
experience as men do in running large athletic departments.
That is why they are not hired as athletics directors.

FACT: Colleges and schools must make
an effort to hire competent women athletic directors, to
break the cycle. If women are not given the chance to gain
experience, how will they ever get it?

MYTH: It's hard for schools and colleges
to hire women coaches because women drop out of the workforce
to raise a family.

FACT: The argument that women drop
out of the work force for family reasons is a common way
to excuse sex discrimination. But there is no evidence that
women drop out in great numbers. In fact, 54% of mothers
with children under 6 are in the workforce - about the same
as the percentage of all women who are in the workforce.

MYTH: Athletic administrations just
don't receive as many applications from women.

FACT: With top positions, one does
not wait for resumes. According to sports equity researchers
Linda Jean Carpenter and Vivian Acosta, "When an athletic
program is seeking applicants, experience seems to demonstrate
that highly qualified male candidates are identified and
then recruited with the inducements of salary or perquisites
sufficient to get the candidate to leave his present employer.
The same is NOT true for highly qualified female candidates.

FACT: Why, then, do men broadcast
most of the women's sporting events? And why is it OK that
male reporters, athletic trainers, and coaches regularly
go into women's locker rooms?

MYTH: Sports is not an important issue
for women's equality -we should be focusing on more important
issues like political participation and pay equity.

FACT: Athletics affect pay equity,
leadership development, and women's health. The exclusion
of women from sports creates a false image of women as the
weaker sex, which leads to our exploitation in all walks
of life. Feminists and women in athletics must join together
to end discrimination against women and girls in sports.